Republican senator shouts at Muslim witness and falsely accuses her of supporting Hamas at hate crime hearing

A Senate hearing on hate-related incidents was capped off on Tuesday by a male Republican lawmaker yelling at a witness and falsely accusing her of supporting terrorism.

The strange scene played out in front of the cameras at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which met to discuss rising rates of incidents motivated by antisemitic and Islamophobic hatreds around the United States, which have risen sharply since the conflict in Gaza began last October.

Senator John Kennedy was questioning Maya Berry of the Arab American Institute when he began shouting at her that she “support[ed]” Hamas and Hezbollah.

Berry unequivocally denied both of those accusations individually, but Kennedy clearly wasn’t listening, as he repeated the Hamas accusation seconds later.

“You can’t condemn UNRWA, and you can’t condemn Hamas!” the Louisiana Republican yelled, referring to the UN-led organization bound to supply aid to the Palestinian territories; a report from the organization suggested that some of its employees may have had knowledge or involvement in the October 7 attack on Israel last year.

.<a rel=«nofollow» target="_blank" href=«https://twitter.com/SenJohnKennedy?ref_src=» https:>@SenJohnKennedy

: You support Hamas, do you not?<a rel=«nofollow» target="_blank" href=«https://twitter.com/AAIUSA?ref_src=» https:>@AAIUSA's Maya Berry: Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support...You asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country? pic.twitter.com/h7WU3ePLOu

Adding to the confusion of the moment: a male protester in the back of the room began shouting at the senator while he was interrogating the panel’s invited guest,